Book 3 is over 80k words in, and I say that because at that specific point, I stopped counting: I just want to focus on telling the story now.

But I have priorities. I can’t afford to take time out of what I do to make a living in order to do what doesn’t reward me with anything physical (and any of you who knows me on a personal level should be aware of how much I care about my readers). I don’t do 11-hour shifts standing up every day anymore, I don’t carry traveler’s luggage and get threatened at booths for doing my job anymore either. I’m not complaining of the work I’m doing at the moment, I’m proud of it. But my health situation is far from great and my current line of work is very time-consuming. So there’s that.

It’s that simple: my job keeps me fed and warm. Unfortunately, right now, TLoSR doesn’t. Being fed and warm are necessities, so they trump things that are not, such as writing the story I am still obsessed about to the point I have over 20 story arc outlines, 3 long-running spin-offs as well as a rough draft of the movie script ready right now and I still don’t think it’s enough because I know that it could still be done better if I was a better writer or planner, but that only makes me want to take more time working on it so I try to push the thought away. If I have to choose between doing my best now in what can improve my life or a book series I can resume or finish writing at any moment, now or ten years from now as long as I am functioning (and I can maximize my chances, if not guarantee that will be the case by prioritizing my job)… it should be obvious which one I’ll pick, right?

So yeah, not mad about people assuming I’m dead or being disappointed that I couldn’t stick to the unspoken ideal of a book a year. Really, I get it. I had to go through that with authors before. But guys, please remember I’m literally making less than any author on Earth that gets paid even a single penny for his time invested on his or her work because I am making zero dollars out of this. None. It might come across as odd to people who met me when I would take any task someone gave me and try to save the whole world on my own, but I am a person and part of what I consider to be my growing up process involved learning that.

I’m sorry I can’t behave as professionally regarding this as I wish I could or have in the past, and I don’t mean to be rude but my point with bringing up money again and again is I don’t owe any of you books. Now, I’m not going to be a spoiled brat and pretend I don’t need your feedback because I appreciate you guys being here and I know it’d be nice if I could release content every other week or so. God knows I’m working on something like that, even if by working I mean “thinking very hard about the subject until it materializes”. I am also not going to say I just write them to myself, because it’s a ridiculously silly excuse. I recognize that I could be better if I wasn’t worried about something else that, in my opinion, takes priority and I take full responsibility for it. But me accepting that responsibility doesn’t entitle anyone to demand anything from me. It might be written for the public, but it’s still mine. I don’t remember signing a contract with any of you. Not even with my former editor, who I still see as a esteemed friend, but didn’t get involved with the project ever since early volume 2.

I will not belittle or ridicule any of you, call people “haters” or threaten to cancel the project if I receive more of those messages simply because I’m not a fansubber, so that behavior would not be considered acceptable. Our up-until-now unspoken agreement remains the same: I write stories if/when I can or choose to do so and you read them if/when you can or choose to do so. Unless, of course, we can get a significant number of people to sign some sort of contract that legally binds them to consume my work on specific dates. I’d enjoy that a lot, to be honest.

Got the dialogue for a very important Shin-tsu scene down and more of the cool new characters I worked on yesterday, including a huge speech that may or may not be villainous. Wrote a little more than yesterday, too.

Today I started another sideplot, was a lot of fun because the setting allows for some nice experimentation and, failing to do that, I can continue to rip off Ender’s game. Got some good example of gun porn for it too, which made me notice my tendency of going on and on about subjects mid-narrative is alive and well. Also, got some “Last Battle” scene lines right: I had an idea of how I wanted them to go, but this is it.

Managed to meet the goal. Didn’t go too far from it at the request of my loved one and it was for the best; even though I knew I could write a little more, there’s no need to rush it at first. The fact remains I was able to get a solid set-up down and that’s more than I can say I did when not practicing. Teach your kid to walk slow and steady before he can run, yadda yadda.

After the traumatic events of the Slaughter Festival and the return of an old acquaintance with a craving for vengeance, will Koukishin Shinzou get the peaceful days he desperately wanted in the first place or was the whole experience just proof he is unfit for that kind of life? What awaits Kouma Yon after her manipulation being discovered and the situation seems to go deeper than initially assumed? What will happen to Reikoku-sensei, and why does her backup plan terrify Shin-tsu so much? How did the unusual events of that day affect Megumi? Will Akane come to terms with her insecurities and confess her love before it’s too late? What led Rin to considering breaking the band up? What is this town’s secret? What is Mystery? Who is Shiina Ryo?
A literary tale of creation, destruction and reconstruction comes to its conclusion. More characters! More sideplots! References! Casinos! Otaku culture! Psychological drama! Audio engineering! Secrets! Time travel! Metaphysics! Cooking! World War II! Gravity not working properly!

The ridiculously vague synopsis is there and Chiri’s face explains it very well. I’m not going to count the words I have already written, which would be technically “cheating”: in the following month, I really plan on writing 50k words and hopefully wrap the story up while doing so.